It is common sense that people will be confronted with an ethical dilemma in their daily life more or less and they do not how to act on most occasions. The reason why people will be put into an ethical dilemma lies in that there will be problems no matter they take an action or not.
And when one is really in an ethical dilemma, what they have to do is to try their best to meet the ethical standards and reduce the damage toward either party to the least. Therefore the following will analyze an ethical dilemma from two theories, hoping that it can give some insightful suggestions as to how to better deal with an ethical dilemma.
The specific ethical dilemma that I would like to put forward is the ethical dilemma faced by a large soft drinks manufacturer called Sfunho. To put it more specifically, the company Sfunho makes profits by selling sugar water globally and it has customers all over the world.
Therefore it has satisfied its shareholders and employees to a large extent because it is able to guarantee the interests and rights. But what is a pity to say is that the media has specified that the refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) used in this company’s sugar water will lead to obesity and type 2 diabetes. That is to say, this sugar water sold by the company will cause damage to the health of the great majority of customers and sugar water is actually one kind of unhealthy drink.
As a result, this company is suffering a barrage of negative press together with great pressure from consumer groups, government agencies, and health groups. The aforementioned groups like consumer groups, government agencies, and health groups are all criticizing the company’s low ethical standards due to its promoting its unhealthy drinks toward a large number of people so as to hurt their health. So a fair knowledge can be obtained that this company will be put into an ethical dilemma as for how to act, to satisfy the interests of its shareholders and employees by continuing selling its unhealthy sugar drinks or to guarantee the interests and health of the vast majority of the customers by stopping selling the unhealthy sugar drinks any more. From my perspective, it is better for the company to stop selling the unhealthy sugar drinks for the sake of the health of the great majority of consumers all around the world.
Concerning this ethical dilemma in front of the large soft drinks manufacturer Sfunho, the first theory that will be involved in the Trolley Problem. According to the Trolley Problem, the one who has the opportunity to determine whether to pull the lever or not will be argued to be unethical no matter he pulls the lever or not.
The concrete situation is that if he does not pull the lever, then he will let the trolley kill the five people on the main track. However, if he really pulls the lever, then he will still kill one person because of the diverting of the trolley onto the sidetrack. So a fair knowledge can be obtained that the one who determines whether to pull the lever or not will be unethical all the same no matter what decision he makes.
To put the Trolley Problem into the ethical dilemma faced by Sfunho, this company will be unethical no matter it chooses to continue selling the sugar drinks or stop selling it. On one hand, if it chooses to continue selling the sugar drinks, then it will be unethical because it takes no regard for the damage of the sugar drinks toward the health of consumers. What’s worse, the large number of consumers that drink the unhealthy sugar water will make this company unethical to a large extent.
On the other hand, if it decides not to sell the sugar drinks anymore, then it will be unethical because it can not provide its stakeholders and employees the same treatment as in the past due to the decrease of the company’s profits.
With the theory of the Trolley Problem being stated at length above, what follows is the second theory Evil Pleasures. Evil Pleasures means the happiness derived from evil deeds as is different from happiness derived from decent and kind acts. Or maybe it can be put in another way that the happiness derived from decent and kind acts is ethical while the happiness derived from evil deeds is unethical.
And it is right the happiness derived from evil deeds that put the company into the ethical dilemma. Detailed speaking, if the company can choose to sell other healthy products to make profits, then the company can be ethical to both its shareholders and its employees and the worldwide consumers at the same time. For one part, to sell healthy products instead of unhealthy sugary drinks is ethical to its shareholders and its employees because the company can as well make enough profits to satisfy them like in the past. For another, the company can protect the interests and health of the great majority of customers while making profits to meet there.